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Center Medians Out, Double Bike Lanes in, On Tremont St. Redesign

Tremont Street will be whittled down to
two lanes of traffic without a center median strip, Boston Transportation
Department (BTD) officials said on Wednesday night, June 26, in the most recent
meeting on the South End thoroughfare’s changes.

Stefanie Siskin, of the BTD, told the
crowd assembled at the Blackstone School cafeteria that the highly-approved-of
median strips could not be included in the design. That came mostly due to
concerns from the Boston Fire Department, she said.

“There was not really enough space for
the fire trucks to make the turns from a side street onto Tremont Street,” she
said. “That was something everyone liked in concept number one, but they felt
very strongly that will not work.”

So, that has been dispatched, and the
design will now include two lanes of traffic (one in each direction), floating
bus stops, two bike lanes (one in each direction), and parking along the
corridor.

One key controversy with the current design – which is by no means the
final product – is the reduction to two lanes of traffic, and the inclusion of
two bicycle lanes and the floating bus stops. Floating bus stops would require
the stops to be beyond the sidewalk and the bike lane. It would mean that the
bus would have to stop traffic in order to allow riders to board.

Siskin broke the news that the bike lanes
would be fully protected with concrete barriers, and that was cheered.

She said they are in the process of
procuring pre-cast concrete barriers to protect the bike lanes on Tremont
Street – a system that was inspired by snow-heavy Winnipeg.

“That system will hopefully test on Mass
Ave this year,” she said. “It is in the design and will remain in the design
unless something goes wrong in the pilot on Mass Ave…We were inspired by
Winnipeg in Canada because they use these and also get a lot of snow.”

Each lane would be 7.5 feet long, she
said. Some, however, thought that the combination of dual bicycle lanes and the
floating bus stops would really cause safety and traffic issues.

“Notwithstanding the well-intentioned
concern for pedestrian safety, it would seem that much of the motivation
is to accommodate protected bike lanes in both directions,” said Jamie Fox in
written comments. “The move to enhance bike safety is certainly worthwhile.
However, there are other locations for bike lanes, such as on the less-traveled
Shawmut and Warren Avenues, that would not create traffic
headaches. Sure, that may inconvenience cyclists a bit, but cars and
trucks must similarly work around the maze of one-way streets in the South
End.”

Fox said he could only imagine the
tie-ups that will develop when someone is boarding and doesn’t immediately have
the fare.

Siskin said it is going to be much more
difficult to turn onto side streets at unsignalized intersections, but that was
a tradeoff they have made.

“Turning to and from the side streets,
especially during busy times, is going to be more challenging,” she said.
“You’ll have to wait for a gap. What we learned is the all-day benefit of the
land reduction outweighed the headaches at these intersections.”

One intersection on everyone’s mind was
Dartmouth/W. Dedham streets, which is one of the most challenging intersections
in the city. However, it appeared that the re-design wasn’t going to be able to
do much to help that situation due to the lack of space to include turning
lanes.

“We can’t fix all the challenges at that
intersection,” she said. “It’s heavily used by vehicles and it’s narrow and
there isn’t a lot of space on that street. The two streets coming together are
too narrow to introduce a turning lane.”

That might frustrate drivers, who can
sometimes wait two or three light cycles to take a left turn or just get through
the intersection, but there are measures that will be in place for pedestrians
there and throughout the corridor.

At that intersection, pedestrians are now
going to get an automatic four second head start before the lights turn green
for drivers – in hopes that pedestrians will be more visible and largely across
the street before cars are introduced.

The first crossing that will see
improvements will be East Berkeley and Berkeley streets, where there will be a
six-second head start for pedestrians who hit the crossing button. “The head
start is giving you the opportunity to get into the crosswalk so turning
drivers can see you there,” she said.

At Clarendon and Tremont streets, there
will also be a six second head start.

At West Newton, they will make the signal
cycle longer, going from 45 seconds to 80 seconds.

At Concord Square, crossings would be
automatic and no head starts will be proposed.

Pedestrians will also get better
crossings on the side streets, where raised crosswalks will be re-aligned to match
the sidewalks. As it is now, those on foot have to walk out of alignment to get
to the official crossing, and during snow and rain, this can become an
obstacle. The raised crosswalks will be more visible, and less of an obstacle
for crossing during inclement weather.

“We have done the full survey of the
corridor and we’re pretty sure we can do that at every unsignalized
intersection without much problem,” she said.

All of those things aside, the fate of
the corridor will fair unless double parking and other obstacles in the driving
lanes are displaced.

Several residents were concerned that
delivery trucks could snarl Tremont Street, and Siskin said that they believe
they can conquer that by adding more five minute drop-off/pick up spaces and
more loading zones.

“If we don’t set aside more space for
deliveries and pick-ups to happen, the project will be a failure,” said Siskin.

Some, such as South End Forum Moderator Steve
Fox, said there has been a call from the community to add a third turning lane
in the center, and perhaps combine the bike lanes into one side. That, he said,
could help the problem of frustrated drivers moving into oncoming traffic to
round a parked bus or delivery truck.

Ken Kruckemeyer suggested putting cobble
in the center of the street instead of the islands, such as is done on Columbus
Avenue.

“That cobble situation on Columbus Avenue
hasn’t lasted 40 years, but it certainly has lasted at least 30, and I think it
works pretty well,” he said.

The City plans to continue gathering input
and evaluations from the public and City departments, and will come back to the
community with more designs in the fall.